we are only made of air and dust

"Yes, you are nosy," said Howl. "You're a dreadfully nosy, horribly bossy, appallingly clean old woman. Control yourself. You're victimizing us all."

"But it's a pigsty," said Sophie.
"I can't help what I am!"

"Yes you can," said Howl. "And I like my room the way it is. You must admit I have a right to live in a pigsty if I want. Now go downstairs and think of something else to do. Please. I hate quarreling with people."

• The creators of Hot Fuzz tweet slash fiction about their creation and I am reminded why I tweet and occasionally follow 'celebrities' Especially if they are GEEKS like ME
• I am almost done watching the entire second season of Pushing Daisies - when it was airing, I only managed to watch episodes 1-4 live, and then ABC's frustrating shuffle game with it made me lose track of when new episodes were airing. I still prefer Dead Like Me to Pushing Daisies' sweet, sometimes bordering on treacly optimism and tweaked fairytale feeling, but it's still a very enjoyable show. I love Lee Pace so much, but my favorite characters are Olive and Emerson Cod, hands down.
• Sharp Teeth and the Freedom Writers Diary are waiting for me at the library. I picked up Sharp Teeth because Simon Pegg tweeted about it, and my TEFL/TESOL class recommended Freedom Writers. As a soon to be certified English teacher, I figure I need all the help and inspiration I can get.
• I figured out hiragana! Kind of. It was mostly in bursts and connecting the dots in a ten minute spurt at my class. But I'm going to continue with it. I have a feeling I might pick up the reading/writing aspect of Japanese much quicker than actually speaking it, because that's how I primarily learn. Also, I apparently have freakishly neat handwriting and am very quiet, according to my classmates. That's my usual first impression - people are surprised by how much I don't speak when they meet me.
• A few of my classmates already have jobs lined up in Taiwan, Japan, and South America after they receive their certification. I need to send out my applications. There's quite a few Asian people in my class - the majority are Korean, Korean-American, and there's a few Chinese people as well. My teacher taught in Japan for 12 years and Taiwan for 6 (? I think) and has been back in the states for two. She was in Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Taipei and some country side jobs. I asked her about Yokohama, and she said she loved the fish market there. I'm mostly interested in Yokohama because of the large Chinese population there and the Chinatown, and also the large variety of music and art connections there: Yuzu, Takashi Murakami, Oda Kazumasa, etc, etc. And also because while I like cities, I like living away from the major metropolitan areas - it's like how I loved living in North London as opposed to Central London, and how my life here is an a hour away from Los Angeles. Not that I don't think Tokyo would be a strange and wonderful trip, but it's only an hour or so by train from Yokohama. But really, I'd be happy anywhere at this point, I think. I just want to travel and teach and above all, learn.
• Looking over old university exams from my Chinese class. I was smart, really. I need to pick that up again.
• By the end of this week (hopefully), my Atashinchi no Danshi box set will arrive. I pre ordered back when I had a job, so it's like a delayed gift. ILU, OOKURAS.
• I know how beautiful Meisa Kuroki is, but sometimes there'll be a new picture and I'm instantly reminded holy crap, she is stunning.
• Speaking of beautiful girls, (and because she's my favorite!) I'm bummed that Maki's movie with Matsuken isn't coming out until next year, and her Fuji SP isn't airing until next year either.
• My house is almost completely remodeled. I feel only relief. It only takes the lack of running water and no kitchen to turn me into a schizophrenic, unhinged mess.
• I've dled the first episode of Untouchable, Tokyo DOGS, and My Girl. I don't know if I'll get to them by this weekend.
• I crave pizza. And pastrami sandwiches.
• the best part of GLEE is Sue Sylvester, followed by Mike Chang's dancing, Kurt's expressions, and Tina's warddrobe. I only wished I dressed like that in high school. But I had her hair. Only I had red streaks, then all over red, purple, with departures into turquoise, blue, green, and a regrettable week where it was blonde(ish) in front, green, blue, and magenta. If I thought about it more, there's more I could find to criticize about Glee then to wholeheartedly love, so I'm just going to accentuate the sublime nature of Jane Lynch's portrayal of Sue. Jane Lynch is awesome, has always been (I love her in Christopher Guest's movies.)

The death of the dinosaurs was only one piece of luck that allowed humans to evolve. There were important others, and one of them was love. By "selecting" the ability to love as a crucial part of our biology, evolution made us what we are. Contrary to what philosophers, moralists, theoreticians, in-laws, and counselors have always argued, love is not a choice. It is a biological imperative. And just as evolution favored human beings who were able to stand upright, it favored human beings who felt love. It favored them because love has great survival value. Those who felt love made sure their offspring survived, those offspring inherited their ability to love, and they lived longer and had more offspring of their own. In time the tendency to love became part of our genetic endowment, and then it became more deeply ingrained than a mere tendency, aptitude, or bequest, and its richness began to subsidize every enterprise of our lives. Humans became emotional venture capitalists.
-- A Natural History of Love by Diane Ackerman